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US also blacklists four Ukrainians

The US Thursday also named four Ukrainians in an asset freeze and visa ban, on top of seven Russians sanctioned for events in Crimea. The Ukrainian names include: former president Viktor Yanukovych; Viktor Medvedchuk, a Yanukovych go-between to Moscow; Vladimir Konstantinov, Crimean parliament speaker; and Sergey Aksyonov, new Crimean PM.

Central European countries say they have "nothing to hide" on rule of law issues - while justice commissioner Vera Jourova said they should agree to the Commission's controversial budget plans on rule of law conditionality.

Giovanni Buttarelli, the European data protection supervisor, says the EU-US data sharing pact known as Privacy Shield will play an increasingly minor role given the general data protection regulation.